Create a team

By default, your team is Private, meaning you'll have to add the people or groups you want on the team.

+Select Public if you want anyone in the organization to be able to find and join the team.

Add members.

+You can add people, groups, or even entire contact groups.

+If you need to add people from outside your organization, use their email address to invite them as guests. Add a friendly display name for them too.

When you're done adding members, select Add and then Close.

Note: If you're a global administrator, consider creating an org-wide team that automatically adds everyone in your organization.

Create a channel

By default, every team gets a General channel, which is a good channel to use for announcements and information the whole team needs. To add more:

Select More options next to the team name.

Select Add channel.

Enter a name and description for your channel.

+You can build a channel around a topic, project, department name, or whatever you like.

Select Automatically favorite this channel for the whole team if you want this channel to be automatically visible in everyone's channel list.

Select Add.

Customize and manage your team

Select More options next to the team name.

Select Manage team to find Members, Channels, Settings, and Apps for your team all in one place.

Select Settings > Team picture to add a team picture and give your team some personality.

Create and format a post

Create and format a post to start a conversation in a channel.

Type a message.

Select Format.

Format your post with the following options:

Add a subject

Bold

Bulleted list

Insert link

Select Send.

Get attention with @mentions

Send a co-worker or entire team a notification to get their attention when you use @mention.

Get one person's attention

Type a message in a reply or start a new conversation.

Type @ and the person's name.

Select the person's name you want to mention.

Finish your message and select Send.

Get an entire team or channel's attention

Type a message in a reply or start a new conversation.

Type @team or @channel.

Select the team or channel you want to mention.

Finish your message and select Send.

Save a post or a message

To save a message or post, select Save message just to the right of the text.

To see a list of your saved messages, select your profile picture at the top of the app, then choose Saved.

Or type /saved in the command box at the top of the screen.

Note: As of right now, there's no way to create tasks, to-do lists, or reminders in Teams. Don't worry, though, that's coming soon.

Activity feed basics

Select Activity to view your Activity feed, a summary of everything that's happened in the team channels you follow. Select Filter to show only certain types of messages such as unread messages, @mentions, replies, and likes.

When a red circle appears next to Activity , you have a notification–such as an @mention or a reply–in your feed. These notifications remain in your feed for 14 days. After that they expire and no longer show up in your feed.

Notes: Another way to check your notifications is to use the command box at the top of Teams.

Type /unread to see your unread channel notifications.

Type /mentions to see all your @mentions.

For a more specific feed, go to the Feed menu and select My activity. You'll get a list of everything you've been up to lately in Teams.

Activity feed symbols

We attached unique symbols to different types of notifications in your feed. That way, you can look through your feed and prioritize based on the following:

@mentions of you specifically.

@team mentions for teams you're on.

@channel mentions in teams you're on.

Replies to your posts.

Posts you liked.

You were added to a team.

You were made a team owner.

Trending posts.

Suggested posts.

Manage notification settings

In Microsoft Teams, you have the control to decide what notifications you receive, where you receive them, and how often you get them.

Click More options next to a notification to start managing your feed. From the menu, you can mark a notification as read or unread. You can also follow or unfollow the channel or team where the notification was posted.

To further customize your notification settings, click your profile picture at the top of the app and then click Settings > Notifications. Here you can fine-tune what notifications you receive and how they appear.